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A great treat if eaten responsibly!

Ginsters Ploughman's Rolls......

I tend to steer clear of pastry for all the obvious reasons that it is not overly healthy for you. However Himself loves anything if it is covered in the stuff so on see Ginsters Sausage and Ploughman's rolls on special offer in Morrison's the other day I couldn't help but put them in the trolley for him.

For a packet of four Ploughman's rolls the price was very reasonable at 75 pence, the offer being a half price one. The Ploughman's rolls inside are a good four inches in length and a couple inches wide.

The packaging for the Ploughman's Rolls is rather appealing and only differs very slightly from Ginsters Sausage Roll packet. The main reason of course that it says Ploughman's instead of Sausage roll and that the lettering is in a green colour rather than a blue of the sausage roll ones. There is a good picture on the front of the four Rolls that are contained inside and this makes it look very tempting.

The Ploughman's Rolls are described on the packaging as "Fresh British pork sausage meat with mature cheddar cheese, spring onions and pickle wrapped in light puff pastry". Now to me this sounds far better than just a bog standard sausage roll!

The smell of the Ploughman's rolls is very nice and although smells pretty much like a regular sausage roll you can certainly get a good whiff of the pickle aroma coming from them and although not a great pickle lover I do like pickle in a pork pie or in this case these Ploughman's Rolls!

They look just as a regular sausage roll would do in the fact that the pastry is a a lovely goldencolour but the ends of the roll have a more cheesy type of look to them rather than just being filled with sausage meat.

The taste of the roll is by far the best I have ever eaten they are delicious. I know I said I had bought them for Himself but how could I resist. Himself likes to eat them slightly warmed in the microwave but I prefer them cold straight from the fridge. The pastry is very light and crumbly with a wonderful creamy taste to it and this literally melts in the mouth. The filling is a luscious mix of the pork the pickle and the cheese which works so well together. There seems to be just the right mix of all three of those ingredients and none too overpowering. I said before that I am not a big pickle lover but just the hint that there is in these rolls makes for a lovely taste.

One is just a nice size to eat as it is not too filling but does fill a small gap and is the perfect snack or accompaniment to a bag of crisps for lunch.

Overall I rate these Ginsters Ploughman's Rolls very highly indeed. The price I paid for them was very good and although they are not something I would regularly by especially at full price they most certainly make for a nice treat and a change for something else to have in the fridge. They taste good and although high in fat are worth it for the taste.

One Ploughman's Roll contains 220 calories and 7.6 grams of saturated fat which is terrible really and I hadn't looked at this information before writing this review and now I feel awful for eating one so late last night! But it did taste exceptionally good.

I think a 4 out of 5 star rating is apt for this roll and the only minus mark being that for the size they are rather high in calories and fat.

I do hope that this has been of some help/interest to you.

Many thanks for taking the time to read.

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A lovely tasty treat

I do not really like to get this kind of convenience food but sometimes needs must. I tend to get Ginsters when I am desperate - possibly because they are sold everywhere and possibly because at least I know what I am getting with them.

These Ploughman's rolls are not bread rolls with cheese and pickle (this is what I expected when I first bought one!) In fact, they look a little like a sausage roll. They do contain the obligatory Ploughmans Cheese and pickle flavour. This is a little confusing to those who expect a sausage roll taste for a sausage roll looking item.

The taste is a combination of sausage, cheese and pickle. The flavours work really well together. There is a slight sweetness but only very slight.

The pastry that is used is deliciously flaky and crumbly. It is slightly greasy but really tasty. Actually it might be too greasy for some people, as the cheese adds more grease to the mix. I love cheese though so cheesy grease doesn't count! I am making it sound grim but tit honestly is quite tasty.

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a change from a sandwich

When I'm at work at weekends, I always find it a struggle to know what to eat that doesn't bore me. Yesterday I asked my other half to go to the shop and get me a pasty. I hadn't had a pasty for ages and it made a change from a sandwich. He came back with these Ploughman's rolls and said he couldn't find anything else that resembled a pasty.

A Ginster's Ploughman's roll is made much the same as a sausage roll but includes cheese spring onion and pickle. So far it was sounding nice. I'm particular when it comes to sausage rolls as they all taste so different, and I don't like it if it is too spicy or bland etc.

I opened the packet which was designed quite classily in black wrapping which was easy to tear open. My pack contained four individual rolls but you can get them as one large pie too. Sitting on a cardboard tray were my generous sized rolls looking back at me.The pastry looked inviting if a little crumbly. According to the packet these can be eaten hot or cold. I chose to eat them cold as being at work I am limited on ways to heat foods.

I could tell the pastry was going to flake slightly as I picked it up. It wasn't overly fluffy though and I managed to break a piece off without too much mess.Inside the pie I couldn't smell much out of the ordinary, and it looked much like a sausage roll, with maybe a tad darkness to the filling.

Tasting the pie is where it comes into its own. Immediately I get a hint of cheese coming through the sausage meat. There isn't a lot of onion flavour or even pickle, but I can taste a sweetness which I was putting down to the pickle being in there.There was a nice consistency to the overall taste of the pie and the texture between the pastry and the filling worked well against each other.I wouldn't go so far to say the pie was exceptionally moreish, but it served a good purpose with me and I happily ate one for lunch and then one again for dinner last night as well.

Some pies will leave a lot of flaky mess behind but this was minimal. The flavours weren't overly strong, but then I like some foods like that.

Each of my individual pies provided me with 220cals and a whopping 16.3g fat. That is a hugely high fat content that is consistent in all pastry dishes such as these, but I'm glad I hadn't read that before I ate them.The pies contain Milk, wheat, gluten, barley and egg, so not suitable for any allergy sufferers.My four pies cost me £1.50 from the supermarket and I thought that was average value for money compared to other similar brands of pasty. I wouldn't buy these all the time purely for the fat content but they served a purpose tome yesterday.

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It's not bad but really nothing special!

Walking round a shop when your hungry is such a sin! I'm trying to cut out products that are bad for me. Not because I'm trying to lose weight. I'm not, but because I want to eat healthier. However I saw these Ginsters rolls on offer in my local Nisa shop and I couldn't resist trying one I was starving when I eyed it up!

The Packaging....

Long black foil packaging. Really nice and classy actually! On the front I'm told it's a Ginsters of Cornwall product. Then I'm told it's a Large Ploughman's Roll and the size of my product is stated (140g). I'm then told it's fresh British pork sausagemeat with mature cheddar cheese, spring onions and pickle, wrapped in a light puff pastry. Then there is a photograph of the roll and the best before date is stamped in black on that and in white writing I'm told it's 'real honest food'.

On the back of the packet I'm told a bit about Ginsters, ingredients are listed, allergy advice is given and there is a bar code. Then I'm given a full nutritional rundown, told it can be eaten hot or cold and given heating instructions and told it is suitable for home freezing and contact details are given for Ginsters.

About Ginsters...

'Here at Ginsters we love fresh, wholesome and satisfying food. We source as locally as possible to keep a close eye on the quality. So we know it's packed full of natural flavour. With no added artificial ingredients. We wouldn't have it any other way'.

The Roll....

Well so excited was I that I chose to eat mine cold cos I have no patience.

If you wish to heat it up stick it on a baking tray in a preheated oven on 180c (350f), Gas Mark 4 for 20 minutes from chilled or 25 minutes from frozen or alternatively zap in in the microwave for about 1 minute. Now it says it can be cooked from frozen and the packaging advised me of this and you can also freeze for a month (recommended).

So yes I ate mine cold. First impressions do count! Well it was huge. Well in my mind it was anyway. To me this is a more than an adequate snack and would be great with other things for a lunch. I pulled it out my packet and was greeted by lattice pastry (pastry with holes in it). I couldn't see the meat mixture but the pastry was lighter around the holes. It was a golden brown cooked colour and looked packed full. The sealed ends of roll had a little dried on inner mixture peeping out giving the impression of something crammed full. Yes it looked tempting!

As I bit into it the first thing I thought was the pastry wasn't that light. In my mind light means at least a little bit flaky. This wasn't at all. I wouldn't call it stodgy but it was quite thick but still remaining moist enough. Well at least I didn't get in a mess was one added benefit.

Now with my experience of Ginsters products (quite vast, I'm a pig by own admittal) when you cook their products they do crisp up a bit but if you microwave them the pastry does go soggy so do remember mine is cold out of a shop refrigerator and this is how I found mine.

Immediately biting the end I was impressed I wasn't just met by a mouthful of pastry. I then nibbled to the filling.

I wasn't that impressed with the pastry as it didn't contain very much taste but it was easy to chew up and swallow but it wasn't flavoursome. It just gave me the impression it happened to be there to transport the filling to my belly! So I was excited about the filling. Now on the wrapper it says pork sausagemeat with mature cheddar, spring onions and pickle. Sounds good? Well it's ok.

The sausagemeat texture is well blended and smooth. On the photograph on the packet it came in it shows me a picture of my roll. It's cut so it reveals the mixture in the piccie. Well it looked nothing like the one I held in my hand. On the photograph the mixture looks very textured and you can see a couple of cubes of carrot and the mixture looks more minced and fresh.

Well no. Mine was a greyish colour with slight flecks of what looked like pepper in it but it was smooth and dense so not the same at all. Ok so that's the look of it, not quite what I had expected but it still has time to redeem itself so never mind it's the all important taste test that counts the most.

So loads of filling to be fair this is for a hungry tum but the flavour of the filing was a complete let down. I got the taste of an ordinary sausage roll. I don't mind them but this isn't meant to be one! I got a good meaty pork flavouring and I got a good seasoned taste but as for tasting cheese or spring onions, carrots, courgette or onions er no. It was a sausage roll! I never got any creaminess from the cheese and the only thing I felt in my mouth was one or two pieces of what I think was pickle.

When you read cheese and pickle on this and the fact it is a 'ploughman's roll' you do expect a sort of Branston pickle type thing to be happening. You wouldn't order a ploughman's in a pub or something and expect dried or pickled pickles would you? Well this is what I got some kind of tiny chunk of green pickle and like I say only one or two of them at the most. I didn't get a vegetable taste of swede or carrot or any of the ingredients listed and basically although it tasted quite nice it's disappointing if your expecting something a bit different. Like I say it's ok but it is run of the mill and if your trying to eat healthy this isn't a product worth breaking your regime for!

In Conclusion....

Would I buy it again? Well yes cos it's a high quality product and it tastes ok. I would definitely cook it next time however to see if that helps it taste a bit nicer and a bit more interesting. It does taste fresh and can substitute a meal but I wouldn't go mad for them!